Friends, Buds, and Flatmates
by Angel Monroe
Summary: Who didn't hate Caroline for interrupting in S2E4 after Connor and Abby got back from the future? So here's what might have happened if Abby had spoken up and Connor had gotten some guts.


Friends, Buds, and Flatmates  
by Angel Monroe

_A/N: So I have yet another new obsession (I do go through them like matchsticks, don't I?) Yes, I've fallen head over heels for Primeval, or more accurately, Andrew-Lee Potts. So here's my first Primeval fic, taking place Series 2, ep 4, in Abby's flat after they come back from the future anomaly. Enjoy. _

_Oh, yeah, and I don't own anything. If I did, I'd be playing Abby and they'd be making so much more with the snogging. _

* * *

There was a mingled look of regret and relief on Connor's face as Caroline popped upstairs, whining about how he wasn't dressed for the theatre, and Abby cursed the girl's ever-inconvenient timing. He'd been about to say it, she was sure. Or he'd been about to say something, at least, more honest than his awkward attempts to backpedal.

Maybe he hadn't meant to say it. Maybe he regretted it. Maybe he hadn't even meant it, though she was pretty sure that was impossible. Up until Caroline, she'd never seen him with any other girls. He'd always wanted to be around her, enough even to blackmail his way into staying at her flat…which had then become their flat. She liked it that way.

And she liked the way he looked at her, and the way he still made her breakfast some weekends even though he'd already paid his penance for letting Rex escape that one time. He'd always bring her a cup of tea after a really long day, and a dish of chocolate biscuits if he hadn't already eaten them all. He noticed stupid, silly things like when she changed her hair or bought a new nail polish, and more than once she'd teased him about that, but it made her smile anyway.

So yeah, he'd meant it, and he'd damn well own up to it if she had any say.

"Connor," she called before he could make his way too far down the stairs.

His head popped up, their eyes meeting over Caroline's shoulder. "Hmm?"

"Just so you know, that thing you said earlier—that thing you're pretending very unconvincingly not to remember saying—we're going to talk about that later."

He nodded with an audible swallow, his eyes wide as though he were staring down a raptor without a tranquilizer gun. "Right then. I'll just, um…right."

He turned to leave, a confused Caroline trailing after, and Abby smiled inwardly. _Go on, then,_ she thought. _Let's see you enjoy the theatre with that in your head. _Served him right, too, dancing around the thing like it hadn't happened. He'd had no trouble at all saying the words when she'd been dangling over the side of a cliff thinking they'd both plunge to their deaths at any second. But now, when they were safe on solid ground without a dozen trumped up seals trying to eat them—now, when he could actually do something about it—he lost his nerve. Let him be uneasy for a few hours, maybe ruin Caroline's night in the process. All the better.

As she started towards her room she heard the door slam and what sounded like a drunken buffalo pounding up the stairs. With a smile she turned and saw Connor, winded and panicked, stagger to a halt on the top landing.

"What'd you do with your girlfriend?" she couldn't help but ask, interrupting whatever he'd been about to say.

"She's just…I…" He mimed pushing something to the side, his movements stuttering and inarticulate like they always were when he was thinking too fast for words.

"What? You shoved her out the door?"

"Yes, actually, sort of." He spared a glance over his shoulder, taking half a second to look concerned about that, before turning back with renewed focus. "Doesn't matter just now, anyway. So Abby—"

"Connor," she echoed back.

"About what I said, you know, on the other side…"

She waited.

"Right, well, it was just—"

She raised her eyebrows archly. "Just…?"

"I mean, when I said," he gestured wildly and uselessly, "what I said…I mean, I didn't mean it like…like how it might have sounded had I meant…what I really meant."

She let the nonsense roll around in her head a moment, trying to decipher the point he might have been trying to get across. It would have been amusing—or more amusing, anyway—were it not entirely likely he'd turn tail and run without actually getting to the point.

"Connor," she prompted.

"Okay, fine! So I'm absolutely arse over teakettle in love with you!"

It was so incredibly _Connor_ that she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Given who he was and what he'd said, she didn't think he'd take it well. He seemed to be waiting for something—knowing him, probably a giant meteor to fall on him and end his embarrassment.

Before she could do it for him, he spoke again, his voice painfully cheerful, "But…that doesn't mean anything has to change, does it? We're still friends, buds, flatmates…right? I mean, it's not like I'm going to follow you around like a lost puppy or anything. Or no more so than usual, yeah? We're just two good friends sharing a flat with no weirdness whatsoever from that thing that I shouldn't have said. We'll just forget it ever happened."

"Never happened," she repeating obligingly.

"Exactly."

"And no weirdness about the thing you never said."

"None."

"Twice."

He grinned uncomfortably. "Right."

"Well," she said airily, "that settled then, I think I'll go have that lie down. It _has_ been an really long day."

As she turned she heard him take two deep breaths and blow them out hard. Like as not, he'd be thinking that he'd just missed death by inches, or at least homelessness. He'd be wondering if Caroline was still outside or if she'd gone on without him, or that he might possibly be out of a girlfriend altogether, what with pushing her out the door and slamming it in her face. Abby wished she could have been a fly on the wall for _that_ scene.

"Oh, Connor, just one more thing."

She turned back to find him in the exact same place, his eyes now wide and worried again like she might tell him he'd earned himself another month's washing up. "Yes, Abby?"

With her features entirely schooled, she walked back to stand in front of him and, ignoring the question on his face, stretched up to press her lips to his.

He seemed absolutely frozen, but she didn't mind in the slightest. She knew he'd catch up after a couple moments. In the mean time she took her time, running her fingers through his still damp hair and smiling at the sharp intake of breath that meant he'd just about caught on that this _really was_ happening.

Just as he began to push, she pulled entirely away. Adorably he made to follow, but she stilled him with a hand on his chest.

"Hmm. Just wanted to see what that was like. You know, before we go back to being friends, buds, and flatmates." Feeling proud at the look of utter astonishment on Connor's face, she stretched and sighed. "You know, I think I might just take a bath first. You'd think after treading water all day the last thing I'd want is more water, but I think I might smell like fish."

Connor's stuttering protests followed her up the stairs, "Wait, but…Abby…can we…can we do that again, please?"

She turned back. "You, sir, have a girlfriend downstairs waiting for you to take her to the theatre."

"But I can take care of that. I don't even have to go downstairs; I can just call out the window."

"Connor! That's horrible!"

He shrugged and smiled, his dimple making a timely appearance. "So, you don't even like her. She tried to kill Rex."

She smiled and shook her head. "Fine. Fair enough. Do what you like. I'm going to take a bath, and then maybe we'll see about how all this fits into buds and flatmates, yeah?"

He surprised her, then, by tugging her against him by the sides of her sweater. "Not good enough," he smiled and took her mouth with his, holding her to him with a strong, overeager hand on the small of her back. She smiled into the kiss.

"Fine, then, you've had your seconds," she laughed, pushing him away. "Now go on. I've been the other woman for five minutes now and I'm sick to death of it."

"You've never been the other woman, Abby," he replied, a stupid, puppy-love grin on his face as he backed away. "Not to me."

As she closed the bathroom door behind her, Abby could just hear the faint shout of, "Oi, Caroline!" being called out the window.

* * *

_A/N: So…? Love, hate, totally indifferent? You know you want to tell me. Reviews are like pixie stix to my inner child of a muse, so show me some love, yeah?_


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